


Inconvenient Timing

by crimtastic



Series: socks and other shenanigans [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: BAMF Darcy Lewis, Captain America: Civil War (Movie), F/M, POV Darcy Lewis, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-07 07:37:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12228477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crimtastic/pseuds/crimtastic
Summary: Darcy had effectively muddled the Steve situation a couple of days ago and everything was in an vexing state of uncertainty. Either way, she'd keep a cool eye on the political climate. Mjolnir knows when Jane and her would have to make a hasty exit.Or how Darcy Lewis ended up dragging her best friend off the radar before the Sokovia Accords.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a continuation from Inappropriate Socks, which I really didn't expect to springboard me into more writing. I think you can get away not reading that before this if the rating deterred you. Everyone is just lovely with their encouragement, though, so here we are with more to share. I spent a lot of time trying to properly format, and I really struggle to find proper tags for things, so if there's a glaring one I missed, sorry.

_A plated grip held her up by a grip on her chest, her feet kicking as she struggled to gain purchase from her position dangling above the ground. The metal jaw in front of her face slid open with an ominous set of clanks and she flinched as the arid gust of its breath hit her face. Its throat started to glow a telltale sign of destruction, and all she wanted to do was scramble back, hide, but she flailed uselessly. She twisted violently to have it drop her, even if it was a dozen or so feet from the ground, and if it had a personality she would assume it was humored. It suddenly threw her and she fell backwards slowly as if in a trust fall. She felt herself slide through the ground like water, impact ignored as her body was plunged into a surreal grave of dirt. Her only view was up from under the ground, a one way looking glass of carnage._  
  
_The Destroyer’s blast of shooting flame was cutting over the sky and she squinted through the blinding effect. Broken bits of buildings, cars aflame, and unnamed bodies littered the landscape as far as she could see. Grandma Dorothy, Erik, Thor, all in indistinguishable pieces that her dream self simply_ knew _were them. Jane was sprawled to the side and was comfortingly whole, but a red aether force was perpetually choking her as she writhed on the ground. She could see Jane tear at her chest, blood flowing freely over her friends hands. Darcy clawed at the dirt that covered her, grabbing fistfuls of the earth that simply kept appearing, trying to reach Jane, but she was uselessly anchored._  
  
_Suddenly, her view was obstructed as a familiar torso dropped heavily on top of her underground position, a familiar stitched patriotic star illuminated for one strange moment before dimming and filling with blood. The oozing ichor dripped down through the earth onto her face, finding no resistance. Her breath stuttered as she flailed, mouth filling with the void of dirt, blood, and fear, which strangled her scream._  
  
Darcy jolted awake with a large gasp of air.  
  
Leaning forward to grip at her chest, she gulped down air and attempted to calm her racing heart. She squinted through the curtain of her hair at the clock on her nightstand that glowed the neon numbers 2:24. Stumbling out of bed, she tripped over the mess of bed coverings that had been kicked involuntarily to the floor. Her bare feet padded softly as they carried her across the room towards the kitchenette her small quarters were afforded. Darcy dry heaved for a few moments over the sink, fighting to keep the nausea down. Momentarily, she felt the desire to retch pass, and spit, realizing she’d bitten her tongue during her sleep. She grimaced at the copper tang in her mouth and flicked the electric kettle on. Sleep would be elusive like almost every other night, so she busied herself making peppermint tea.  
  
The nightmare had been persisting for months, since they arrived at the facility, which was humorous considering she was protected by a literal military grade compound filled with super people. She hadn’t expected Steve to start to make an appearance in her dream, after only one _explicitly_ insignificant meeting, although Darcy argued to herself that it was only his suit. He was probably one of the more tame aspects of her dream, but somehow that terrified her the most. Considering what she could read of his character, she was well aware that he would not lie down to die.  
  
The shriek of the kettle interrupted Darcy’s introspection. She sighed and finished preparing her tea. Sipping her tea, she was glad to replace the bloody taste with peppermint before her mind wandered once again.  
  
The only time she managed dreamless sleep was if she pressed herself to the limits, which is why she rarely argued with Jane if she wanted to do an all night Science! Bender. Jane had her own demons driving her, and Darcy sympathized with the inevitable problems of having once dated a literal god.  
  
But Darcy knew that she had a problem. What she was supposed to do about it wasn’t so clear. Usually people just took up gardening or yarn bombing or something to work out any frustration that built at being woken up in the wee hours of the morning due to nightmares. She had exhausted a lot of options before settling on a cactus that she could forget to water for weeks, and the knitting needles in her bag were usually abandoned after a dozen stitches.  
  
No, her brand of relief had to come in a manner that was rather risque and required some outside collaboration. She always had been a mouthy broad, so discovering that particular facet in her sexual kinks in the past had been a fun time. But Darcy could rationalize why it helped her sleep, if she pressed herself to be honest. Taking back control in an uncertain world empowered her, no matter how negligible her influence actually was, and gave her building blocks to feel secure. That particular night after her liaison with Steve, she had simply fallen into her bed in a cocoon of empty sleep, even if it was fairly early in the evening. Darcy knew at the time that she had to take advantage of the possibility of proper sleep.  
  
There were a couple wonderful days of reprieve, but now the dreams were back, probably even more intense than previously. Her tired and depraved mind almost itched to try to contact Steve, no matter how ashamed she felt. To use him, and his possibly coerced attraction, in such a way made her feel reprehensible. Anyways, she knew it was futile. He had disappeared in a flurry of mission preparations and she knew the opportunity to talk had passed.  
  
Objectively, Darcy knew that she probably suffered a teensy bit of PTSD from her exposure to the Destroyer and Dark Elves. But at this point, who didn’t have similar stories? She had gone to Culver where a portion of the student population had been traumatized by the unintentional Hulk. All of the damage she saw on the live feed during the Chitauri raid of New York City, citizens definitely weren't unaffected. Even Darcy's friend, Dr Selvig, had a litany of mental exercises to relieve his guilt after his bewitched role in the attack. Regardless, with the world constantly under threat from catastrophic forces or non-enhanced persons agendas, it seemed like whining to bring it up to anyone. So she’d suffer in silence, at 2:24 in the morning, and drink tea.  
  
Tea was calming, right?  
  
Darcy reached for her phone and unlocked it. After scrolling over the news feed a few moments, she frowned and threw it back down. Reading about public perception of the Avengers and their capers would just get her heart rate back up, and she really didn’t need that. Inevitably, they would step on the foot of some foreign country, which was the only reason she really paid it any attention. Darcy and Jane had been shuffled through every government entity between New Mexico and London, and Darcy wasn’t taking any chances. She watched the political landscape like a hawk, to figure out _when_ she needed to pack Jane up.  
  
Eyeing her bed critically, she sighed into her cup before tilting the remaining liquid into her mouth with a large gulp. Darcy had learned the hard way what happened if you didn’t put contingencies in place, especially since everyone she and Jane seemed to meet were spies of various kinds. Sure, that particularly instance they had gotten all their work back, but she hated feeling helpless. So she set up her plan, became comfortable with the possibility of everything going to shit before they had even arrived, and had tailored an escape plan the moment they moved in.  
  
Darcy bent to grab her comforter off of the floor and curled up into a comfortable ball in the single recliner the small room afforded her. Her iPod was set in its dock and she fiddled for a few moments to find something soothing, and laid her head down on the armrest. Closing her eyes, she struggled to think of something, anything, that wasn’t her nightmare.  
  
_His touch was almost reverent. Firm, strong hands skimmed up her legs, lips leaving tiny kisses on her knee, and the intensity of his gaze made her skin tingle. It had been so long, but she knew somewhere, deep inside, she should stop this. This wasn’t something she should do to the assumed paragon of virtue. But a side of her just wanted everything to stop, simply be this heartbeat, the breath, this moment, and she gloried in it._  
  
Darcy’s eyes popped open. It wouldn’t help to think about that either. She had effectively muddled that situation a couple of days ago, everything in an vexing state of uncertainty. Nevertheless, cringing over previous blundered gatherings seemed to be only human of her, so her memories continued on anyways.  
  
_After the assignation Darcy had had in his office with him, she’d appeared as calm and collected as ever. This hadn’t been her first experience with a surprise encounter, but the fact that she had watched Steve Rogers clean up his own excitement off of the floor had stretched the limits of her serene countenance. Usually there were guidelines or discussions or really anything other than a furious altercation that distorted into mind melting sex. Sex that had left her as frustrated as she was satisfied, simply because they had both stayed almost completely clothed. Under the right circumstances, it was deliciously appropriate, but for Mew-mew’s sake, what sort of sick Norse god thinks it’s fair to not at least get Steve’s shirt off for the first time?_  
  
“I’m filing a complaint, Thor, next time I see you,” Darcy mumbled to herself, snorting in derision, thoughts drifting back to that particular day.  
  
_Steve had grabbed his jacket and steered her out of the room by the small of her back, but seemed rather tongue tied. Darcy hadn’t been feeling particularly up for small talk herself, everything seemed oddly insignificant after what they’d just shared. Really, she just wanted to go hole up in her quarters and hope to Thor that Steve never thought to ask any of the five W’s._ Where did you learn that? What were you thinking? Why me? _But she could read his moods, and that guilty boy scout expression that had peered up from under her moments prior had caused her to shove her own comfort aside. He **needed** to learn how to treat her normally, not inhibited by stonewalling or avoiding her, otherwise they’d never have a chance to explore their mutual attraction._  
  
_They had been walking down a hallway towards the garage when Steve had turned, question on his lips hopefully of something benign like_ any preferences on the restaurant? _or_ do you feel up for taking my motorcycle? _when Tony appeared in front of them._  
  
“No, no, no, shut off brain, shut off,” Darcy grumbled to herself, frowning as the recollection kept coming. Her body wiggled as she kicked her feet slightly underneath her, embarrassment filling her.  
  
_“Lewis…” Tony eyed them both for a second before a slow grin began to bloom over his face. “Capsicle.”_  
  
_Tony's expression only grew more lewd the longer he observed them. Darcy knew that no matter how collected she appeared, Steve would give away everything completely unintentionally. There were certain types of subtlety that just weren't his strong suit, quite possibly the only covert thing he was bad at, and his expression was practically neon green and flashing ‘I’m a cad of ill repute’._  
  
_“Suit up, Rogers, there's a concern about potential trouble in some backwater country,” Tony shrugged as if the particulars didn't matter. Darcy wondered when being asked to save the world became so commonplace that it sounded like you were discussing the weather. “Widow and Falcon are already prepping Wanda, and I know you’ve been training her for some undercover missions, so you get to chaperone.”_  
  
_Steve frowned and turned to Darcy. “Raincheck?”_  
  
_“Of course,” she murmured in response and he shot Tony an apprehensive look. Tony raised his eyebrows suggestively before Steve seemed to settle on giving her elbow gentle squeeze and jogged away like his ass was on fire._  
  
_Darcy stifled the sigh in her throat since she knew better than to let down her guard around Tony, so she only afforded herself a slight glance at Steve’s retreat. She was mortified that Tony of all people was the one to catch them, and all of their awkward glory, but damn if she’d let Tony see it._  
  
_“So, how was the meeting?” Tony sounded practically giddy as he fell in step with her._  
  
_“Wilson has a big mouth,” was Darcy's annoyed reply. The sooner she returned to her quarters and shucked Tony off her like the aggravating burr he was, the better._  
  
_“I'm hurt, Lewis. Positively skewered that you don't think I can keep tabs without dealing with the rumor mill,” Tony grabbed at his chest dramatically._  
  
_“I didn't know Rogers had it in him, to be honest,” he continued on, “but far be it from me to begrudge him a bit of fun. Maybe this will knock out the icicle that's been lodged up his backside for the past 70 years.”_  
  
_“Thor almighty…” Darcy growled under her breath in exasperation. She quickened her pace, not sure if she had the patience to deal with a overzealous Tony. For all of her bluster, she felt oddly exposed, which uncharacteristically bothered her._  
  
_“I mean, anyone could tell that he was a bit prickly about you, and it will be great for team bonding if we have something to torment him-…” Tony broke off with a yelp as Darcy suddenly grabbed his lapels and shoved him into a wall. She then yanked him down by his tie to bring his face level with hers._  
  
_“If you dare think about even **sneezing** this information to anyone, I swear by my inappropriate socks, I will **end** you,” Darcy hissed the words. She felt a perverse pleasure that Tony gaped at her, a mixture of awe and appreciation on his face. There was a pause while her threat worked its way through his brain, and he brushed her hands off his clothes before straightening and clearing his throat._  
  
_“Touchy, touchy, Lewis. It's all in good fun. I know we can't muddle up the good tactician, that’s how people end up shot. You sure you want to give the Captain a go though? Just think of all the fun we could have…” he leered at her. Darcy wrinkled her nose._  
  
_“No thanks, I'd hate to get in between true love,” she continued walking on and felt relief that her quarters were within sight._  
  
_“Oh, Pepper and I haven't really been together in…” Tony broke off, a concentrated frown appearing on his brow. “Months, now, actually. No time for Avengers and world renown CEOs to really get together…”_  
  
_“Oh, I didn't mean Ms Potts, although cheers for that information,” Darcy smirked as she stepped up to her door and raised her key card as if it were a glass. Tony's frown deepened in confusion._  
  
_She opened her door with a mocking grin, “I make it a point to not come between a man and his perfectly groomed goatee.”_  
  
_Then she slammed the door in his face._

__

 

* * *

  
Darcy poked the doorbell on Jane’s quarters, pushing herself in as it clicked unlocked. She shed her light jacket and dropped her bag at her feet before throwing herself into a chair. Folding her arms on the adjacent table, she dropped her head into them.  
  
“I broke him!”  
  
“What do you mean, you broke him?” Jane mumbled distractedly and gave her a cursory glance from her StarkPad. Darcy groaned into her arms, muffling the sound as she anxiously kicked her feet under the desk.  
  
“I mean, I may have gone a bit extreme with, uh, my defense, and now he’s walking around with this… this face and.. Oh, Jane, I just broke him. Believe me, okay?” Darcy whined into her arms, and began to bang her head against the hard surface. She could still see the brooding expression on Steve’s face as he spied her from afar, right before he boarded the quinjet. He had been preparing for that mission for seemingly three days, and she hadn’t seen him around the public areas at all. For some strange reason, Darcy felt like it was her fault, that she should have attempted to find him in his office or something. But she wavered at the idea of showing up there again so soon. Then it didn’t matter, since it was too late.  
  
“Stop that. Did you yell at him?” Jane asked, rolling her eyes at the dramatics. Darcy’s reply was mumbled. “A little bit.”  
  
“I see. I expect that went poorly,” Jane patted Darcy sympathetically. Darcy suddenly shot up, eyes wide and solemn.  
  
“Oh, no, Jane. It went very, very well. That’s the problem,” Darcy explained. Jane raised a skeptical eyebrow, obviously awaiting explanation.  
  
“The poor guy looks just so _lost_ all the time, right? Just completely aimless, which is so unusual for a soldier, right? But he’s just there, keeping on. Beating down on the newbies like he’s not even sure why he’s doing it, but doesn’t know anything else to do. Hell, badgering us with newbies was probably the most exciting Tuesday he had had in a long while. Maybe we should send Bolman a fruit basket or something for taking one for the team…” Darcy trailed off in thought, before waving her hand in the air, “anyways, his face was just so foreboding, and I did it. I argued with him. I pushed his comfort levels. And by Mew-mew did I enjoy it. The insight I gained from that fight alone...”  
  
“Well, don’t give the asshole any favors,” Jane muttered, uncomfortably shuffling a few things on the desk. Darcy took a distracted moment to feel a bit bad for the minimal reference to Thor before Jane continued on. “Hernandez has earned anything you’d throw at him, I’m actually _miffed_ at Bolman for picking up Carl…”  
  
“What’d you do to Carl!?” Darcy interrupted in a shrill voice, pulling up her bag to begin digging through it. Darcy caught up to the rest of the conversation, suddenly concerned at Jane calling Captain America an asshole, and realized they were playing the pronoun game. “Wait, Hernandez?”  
  
“Oh, I repurposed Carl. For the greater good,” Jane stated primly, “Not that it did any good. I guess I need to talk to…”  
  
“Wait, hold on Jane,” Darcy set her bag down, search abandoned, “Did you try to sabotage our own security detail with my poor, unsuspecting, loyal, little taser Carl?”  
  
“No! I didn’t expect Bolman at all, I had just finished my modifications on Carl and she happened upon him at the wrong time. I was hoping Hernandez would find it, since he’s always sneaking in to grumble at me when you’re out,” Jane shrugged, “He’s so incompetent, he’s hit the circuit breaker _three times_ in the middle of critical readings, simply because he was ‘concerned about the spike of resources’. Like, how is this even a problem? We are at a state of the art laboratory, Stark Industry’s best, but no, security gets a little twitchy and out go the lights. I was hoping Carl would look concerning enough to get Hernandez out of our hair for a couple of weeks.”  
  
Darcy struggled with words for a few moments, mentally picturing what ‘concerning’ meant to the astrophysicist.  
  
“Did you get Carl back?” Darcy finally questioned rather anxiously.  
  
“About that…”  
  
Darcy groaned again.  
  
“I’m sure Captain Rogers will give him back if you just explain it was a mix up of equipment,” Jane shrugged, completely unconcerned. “He always listens to you.”  
  
Darcy snorted to herself, feeling a rush of pleased embarrassment. “Oh, you bet he does,” she muttered under her breath.  
  
“So, back to the issue at hand, how did _you_ break Hernandez?” Jane asked. “Did he actually get ahold of Carl? Did you tase his deserving ass by proxy?”  
  
Darcy sighed. Taking the small reprieve, she relaxed her body with a shake of her head.  
  
“Not as far as I know. He’s probably just weird from the situation with Bolman, being on medical leave and all. To think I thought it was a _little_ electric shock. No wonder she’s been in Medical for over a week. You don’t do anything by halves, do you, Janey?” Darcy smiled, brushing off her frustration. Sometimes it was just best to admit defeat, and this conversation had veered so off course from the girl talk she’d envisioned. She decided that she’d take advantage of the change of topic, as she didn’t particularly feel like sharing any longer.  
  
Jane blinked at her for a moment before picking back up her StarkPad and smiling down at it. “Of course not.”  
  
“But really, Jane, where was I during all this? I can only think of one instance when the power cut off, and it was due to legitimate fire, so…” Darcy pinched her nose, “like you do realize it's my job to make sure things go smoothly, right? I would have brought it up to… to the Captain.”  
  
Darcy thanked Mjolnir for Jane's sudden focus on her StarkPad. It smoothed over the hesitance that Jane might have picked up in Darcy’s voice, and a few beats of silence passed before her words began to sink into Jane's mind and she startled.  
  
“Oh! Sorry. Right. You weren't in the labs when Hernandez came by a couple weeks ago. I mean, I suspected the asshole was just stalking our surveillance feed or something, since it was always when you were away. Always right when I would start getting fantastic readings, but then the clown decided to prove my creepy theory by coming down and talking to me about my ‘little unnecessary experiments’ and…” Jane huffed a moment, “essentially saying that the only reason I was here was due to being someone’s whore…”  
  
“What?!” Darcy jumped up, but Jane pressed on.  
  
“...And that to keep Th-thor, eugh… _pliable_ , when he returns, that they had to basically babysit me…” Jane coughed over the name, voice growing softer as she realized just how much she may have unintentionally omitted from Darcy.  
  
“That _fucker_ ,” Darcy growled, suddenly glad they were having this conversation in Jane’s rooms which were devoid of surveillance equipment. “Why didn’t you tell me, Jane?”  
  
Jane shrugged, “It didn’t seem important.”  
  
“Didn’t seem important? Jane, Jane, my sweet wonderful Jane, there are times where I just cannot fathom how it’s easier for you to just _booby trap something_ instead of telling me about it.”  
  
“To be fair, Darcy, you would have stopped me,” Jane grumbled. “And I might have been feeling a smidge vindictive, as childish as it is. _Little experiments_ my ass, I’ll show you _little experiments_ …”  
  
Darcy huffed a laugh at the expression on Jane’s face. A thought struck her, though, and her face sobered.  
  
“Did he say anything else?” Darcy asked quietly, almost dreading the response.  
  
“Something about some Sokovia bill? I hadn’t the faintest idea what he was talking about, but he was pretty excited at the prospect of me being ‘muzzled into compliance’ or something. Do you know what he was talking about?” Jane asked, glancing up in recollection as she struggled over the details of Hernandez’s actual terminology.  
  
“I wouldn’t worry about it, Janey, that used toilet paper of a bill doesn’t apply to us, even if we are currently cloistered in an underground compound of uncharted science prestige. It’d take Tony Stark to agree to anything for it to make it’s way in here. Thor knows Stark can’t be _that_ naive.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy gets surprised by a visit and decides it's time to get the hell out of dodge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was really frustrated after posting the first chapter, thinking I'd mucked up a bunch of little things (and one particularly glaring thing), so this one had massive rewrites over and over again to hopefully adjust them. I'm not particularly happy with it, but I hate the idea of leaving it hanging more, so oh well. Hopefully you enjoy it.

Darcy had a terrible start to her morning. Nightmares being consistent meant she didn’t get back to sleep until late, and it was far too early currently. Rolling out of the recliner, she threw on some of her laziest jeans and sweater. Having laced up her sneakers, she swore when she discovered her stash of coffee was empty and groaned in annoyance.

This necessitated her travelling towards the lounge for her morning fix, bleary eyed due to interrupted sleep _again_ and she pondered what to do about the Hernandez situation. His insinuations had only ramped up steadily in the weeks of discord following the Avengers actions in Lagos. Darcy watched the news carefully, reading between the lines of sensationalized titles, and she connected that Hernandez had an unusual interest in the controversial Accords that politicians had thrown together.

The problem was that apart from Jane, Erik, and Steve, there wasn’t anyone else she particularly trusted at the facility. Jane was in the same situation, if not worse since Hernandez must have had some sort of alert system when Darcy left Jane’s presence. Misappropriating company resources, anyone? Erik had been packed away into a different division and she only saw him at lunch, occasionally. It had been weeks and Steve hadn’t returned after his mission. Neither had anyone else from his mission, for that matter, and even if she felt like bending Tony’s ear, he was suspiciously absent as well. She had half a mind to go out on the lawn and yell up at Heimdall to send someone competent to deal with it, but the jerk had never listened to her before, so it was useless.

“Hey, did you hear about how Captain America and his team are in confinement upstairs for their snafu in Lagos?” someone snickered to their companion as she entered the lounge. Darcy tilted her head, concentration completely focused on the conversation a few people ahead of her. _Snafu? That's putting it mildly,_ she thought derisively. She felt a sudden lurch of apprehension roll through her stomach.

“Ha, I’m not surprised. The Wakandan King is pissed at their blase attitude towards civilian life. Seriously, what are we training for here if that kind of collateral damage is acceptable?” Darcy snuck a look at the pair, and had her suspicions confirmed that they were some sort of military personnel.

“It was Maximoff’s fault, I don’t know why they all have to be put in time out because of her fuck up. All those Wakandans were doing good work, they didn’t deserve to die.”

She rolled her eyes, wondering if anyone deserved to die in these situations.  She continued thinking about the hundreds of casualties in any of the other attacks, hell, she’d rescued puppies in her first rodeo. People seemed to conveniently forget the few million people of Manhattan who would have died if Stark hadn’t steered that nuclear warhead into the portal during the Chitauri attack. That particular warhead that had been fired by an organization that was politically similar to the one demanding the Avengers be curbed now. She had a lot of sympathy for those Lagos victims families, but wondered how many more would have died if Maximoff _hadn’t_ magicked it up, including their poster boy Captain. She wasn’t in a position to curb the Avengers’ zeal for trouble, but damn, it just really sucked that they had to piss off Wakanda. Wakanda was one of the few countries with the clout to actually do something about it.

As she busied herself with pouring her coffee, she heard a commotion from the foyer and turned, popping the lid on the cup. A collection of suits trailed behind a silver haired man who Darcy recognized to be retired General Ross, now Secretary of State.

_Shit._

She hurried to follow them, hopefully as inconspicuously as possible, dread beginning to crawl around her stomach. They all paused by the elevators, and Darcy walked around them to press the down button, nodding politely to the group.

“Good morning,” Darcy said as she turned towards the elevator.

“Good morning,” Ross replied cordially, “Hopefully it’s an agreeable day.”

She tilted her head thoughtfully. “Any reason to expect otherwise?”

“Only have to bring heroes to heel. Shouldn’t be too difficult,” he guffawed as if he had told the greatest joke. Darcy laughed along with him, privately repulsed by the obvious political artifice. She was rather disappointed that Ross wasn’t more indirect.

“Well, good luck, sir. Do your patrons proud,” she smiled encouragingly at him, watching him enter his elevator to go up.

“Thank you miss, and a good day to you,” he replied as the doors closed.

Darcy felt energy course through her and decided to forego the elevator. Bursting into the stairwell, she was suddenly glad for wearing sensible shoes and hurried down to the lab.

“How the hell did this bullshit get here so fast?” Darcy exclaimed as she entered, setting her coffee down next to the ominous thousand page document on her desk, declaring _Sokovia Accords_ in bold letters. Jane eyed the document from her desk apprehensively.

“Hernandez dropped it off first thing. Said something about it being required reading due to the crisis in Lagos,” Jane muttered, obviously uncomfortable with the surprise visit. Darcy walked over to Jane with a serious stare. She reached around Jane to flick the _play_ button on her iPod and pull Jane up on her feet as the music began to blare.

“Dance party!” Darcy screeched, flailing her body about. Jane looked rather confused but went along with it, starting to bounce around in time with her. Darcy grabbed her arms and they danced in circles together.

“We have a small window, Jane, if this is here. Stark must have rolled,” Darcy tried to keep her voice disjointed, remembering Hernandez’s propensity for keeping tabs on Jane’s environment. She hoped that the security footage would be too garbled with the music to make any sense of her words. “What do you want to do?”

“What difference does it make to us?” Jane asked breathlessly. Darcy shook her head.

“I don’t know yet, but I just ran into Ross at the elevator and the hell if I think he’s up to any good. Remember how badly he mucked up Culver? Even as a freshman, years later, I heard horror stories. I’m thinking worse than that stack of NDA’s S.H.I.E.L.D. made us sign in New Mexico. And remember trying to wrestle with them for your right to publish your work?” Darcy replied. “I’ll give it a thorough reading as soon as you tell me what you want to do, but Janey, everything in me is screaming to leave.”

Jane agreed right as the song ended, and Darcy set her to grabbing the most important of her equipment, hopefully small, and began to burn data onto a thumbdrive. They worked fast, previous experience useful for a change, and had everything important in a single duffel by the time they were done.

“Go to your room and gather what you can, I’ll meet you in a half hour? By the 2nd floor elevators?” Darcy asked, and Jane nodded her assent before disappearing out of the lab.

Darcy pulled the last thumbdrive out of the computer, shoved it in her bag with the Accords packet, and heard a yelp in the hallway outside the door. She swore, shoving things inside the bag out of the way before pulling out her new taser Neil and pocketing it into her sweater.

She quietly exited the lab to see Hernandez in his 200 pound build pinning Jane to the wall by the throat. Jane had her hands raking at his face as his hand covered her mouth to deter her shrieks.

“You think you could get away? With all of the Avengers on the public shitlist? Their wrists have only been slapped, it’ll just be a matter of time before their real punishment kicks in. This little haven you have to work in? _Gone_. You’re under Ross’s orders now, you little bit-” Hernandez cut off suddenly as Darcy’s aim was true and two electrodes hit home into his neck and he went down as a twitching mess. Darcy lurched forward to catch Jane who was gasping for breath.

“Yeah, fucker, hope you liked that,” Darcy kicked him in the groin while he was down, and he groaned and curled up into a ball. She pulled Jane over to the adjacent wall to deposit her.

“He just… came out of nowhere, Darcy, I couldn’t get him off...” Jane was not prone to hysterics, so Darcy gave her a moment, knowing the panic would pass.

“He hasn’t done anything like that before, correct?” Darcy asked quietly, feeling a bit disturbed that she had to clarify. She glanced around nervously, their hallway was usually pretty devoid of traffic, and Jane shook her head, resolve entering her face.

“No, and even when he would come in to bother me, he never forgot about you. I wasn’t expecting him since he always waited till you were gone. I don’t know why he was here, he must have seen you on the surveillance… and us packing up…?”

“Come on, we gotta pull him into the lab,” Darcy gave Jane’s arm a bit of a bump before kicking the door to the lab open and grabbing Hernandez’s arm to drag him inside. Jane paused only a moment before helping, and Darcy felt the trickle of fear that had been dripping down her spine all morning grow as he started to groan in protest. She didn’t want to think about why Hernandez suddenly didn’t find her presence a deterrent any longer.

They managed to pull him over to a small table and Jane found a bunch of unused zip ties which they proceeded to zip tie each of his hands and feet. Darcy briefly patted him down, taking his key card and gun, the latter of which she threw into a random box. She was no spy, but she figured if he managed to get out of their binds, keeping him disarmed would be best. She purposely ignored the fact that as security, he would know where all the weapon caches were on base.

“Okay, let’s go,” Darcy said, and they hurried together to the residential wing. The entire trip to the residential floor she worried about looking too conspicuous. Their duffel bag was unnecessarily bulky, and they shouldn’t have to be skulking about like spies. But Darcy was spooked, and experience had taught her to pick her battles carefully which hadn’t failed her before. She knew that Stark Industries had no legal right to detain them, but if Tony rolled to whatever committee had built this monstrosity of a bill, removing themselves from said compound filled with super people would be infinitely more difficult.

After depositing Jane and the science filled duffel at her quarters, Darcy ran to her own. She rolled clothes as quickly as she could, stuffing them into her bag and dashing around her quarters hurriedly. Trying to jam as much as she could into the bag, she paused to yank her bed away from the wall and ripped at an inconspicuous electrical panel, pulling out a large manila envelope hidden inside it. She ripped it open, pulled out a purple thumbdrive and stuffed the rest of it into the bag. Heading to her laptop, she plugged the drive into it and started an upload of the contents into the cloud system the lab used. That done, she packed up her laptop and shoved her chargers into her bag before heading out.

Jane was nowhere to be seen, but Darcy hadn’t expected to see her. She pulled her bag over her shoulder and palmed Hernandez’s key card as she headed to the elevator.

 _If only contingencies weren’t necessary,_ Darcy thought to herself as she entered the called lift and poked a random upper floor. She just had to get past the initial security and then she could hopefully find Steve somewhere in the labyrinth before heading out. Swiping Hernandez’s card, she felt the first twinge of relief of something going _right_ today as it chirped in cheerful agreement.

The moment of idle standing for the elevator to reach her destination brought a wave of exhaustion over Darcy. She rubbed her forehead, trying to gather her thoughts on what she would even _say_ to Steve, let alone how they’d get out of the facility with minimal fuss. Most of the transport off the compound was done by bus or plane, and the vehicle they’d arrived in had been recommissioned the moment they’d arrived. Presumably they’d have access to all of Stark Industries company vehicles if they ever had the occasion to leave the premises, but Darcy knew they’d have to dump it pretty quick or be tracked.

The elevator doors opened and she peered out, eyes darting to register the available exits. There were less people here, but still so preoccupied with their work that they didn’t even notice her. She breathed a sigh of relief before stepping out, forcing her limbs to relax. Darcy ambled from the elevator, choosing a random direction with a promising looking hallway. The level had a similar layout to the floor the labs were on, so fortunately she spied a staircase fairly quickly.

She cringed at how loud the door opened, darting in quickly so that hopefully no one noticed her, and began taking the stairs. Huffed breaths escaped her, she really should do more cardio, but she got lost in her thoughts of counting stairs.

Suddenly, she rounded one of the stairwell corners and almost bumped into a familiar form leaning against the railing. Steve's hand shot out to steady her.

“Darcy!” Steve straightened, expression torn between surprise, uncertainty, and… grief?

“Shit. Hi,” was her eloquent reply. Her eyes had widened in surprise at stumbling over him so suddenly and she glanced around the stairwell for anything suspicious. “I didn’t expect to find you so easily. I barely even knew you were back. I just… Jane and I are out.”

“Out?” Steve questioned, and she could visibly see the moment where he shoved whatever was bothering him aside and pulled on a Mr. Fix It face. Darcy nodded.

“I was thinking about it for a while, this fucker down in security has to be on Ross’s payroll or something, maybe stalking Jane for info? He just attacked her to keep us from leaving. But these Accords are the last nail. We’re not super, we’re just normal, and it _didn’t apply to us_. But Tony…” she let out the rush of words, not sure if her disjointed thoughts were making sense, especially since her impulses were screaming at her to do something, anything, than just stand there inches apart.

“Tony sold out Avengers, and everything affiliated. I know. We were just having a meeting deliberating,” Steve paused, with a shake of his head, “Really, being guilt into signing. It’s been… it’s been interesting. But this guy attacked you?”

Darcy gave him a shrug.

“Jane, and Hernandez didn’t know how handy I am with a taser,” she snorted. Thor hadn’t been around to regale everyone with the story, so her taser talents were fairly unknown. Steve frowned.

“Hernandez isn’t new, he’s been with Stark Industries for years. He should have more important things to do than overlook a rather specialized lab…” Steve muttered to himself, “Who came after Bolman’s accident?”

“No one replaced her. Even she was a bit of a buffer from his bullshit. Which, by the by, was totally Janey’s fault, but it wasn’t meant for Bolman. So, uh, sorry.”

Steve looked confused, and Darcy shrugged again.

“Jane might have adjusted one of my tasers to be a bit of a surprise for Hernandez…” Steve put up his hands to interrupt her, brushing away her irrelevant explanation.

“Is Hernandez still in the building? Do you guys need an escort?” he asked.

“Oh, we left him zip tied in the labs. Hoping to skedaddle before it even becomes an issue, especially if he actually has affiliations…” Darcy trailed off, shifting on her feet as she checked the time on her phone.

“Is there anything you need before you go? Anything I can do?” he asked, stepping a bit closer. Darcy marveled that despite the growing anxiety pressing her to be as fast as possible, thirty seconds with this man instantly mollified her. Her brain suddenly had taken a rather dirty turn of thinking with all the rather improper things she could do to Steve.

 _You could strip that shirt off, let me lick down your chin to your chest. Take my time to explore your skin, maybe even… Not. The. Time!_ She shook her head to interrupt her thoughts before she got too distracted.

“Wheels, really. I could probably nick something on our way out, but it’d be easier if I didn’t have to,” Darcy forced herself to reply instead, keeping her voice even, which he nodded.

“That should be easy. Any idea of where you’ll go?” his eyes focused on her, which she noted by the change in his countenance. That intense look had got her in trouble the last time she had seen it, but there was an grieving edge to it. He must have gotten some _really_ bad news.

“Here and there. Probably head southwest and let Jane record all the anomalies she can. That’ll keep her occupied,” Darcy kept her voice neutral, desperately wanting to be more specific so maybe he could follow them, follow her, but by Mjolnir, she knew it wouldn’t make a difference. If Steve wanted to find her, he could, and she’d rather keep her options open. Anyways, she and Steve didn’t really _have_ anything, even if it was a bit of something, so there was no reason to expect him to keep tabs anyways. Darcy felt a stab of disappointment, but shoved it aside to intercept the growing concern on his face.

“Before you ask, I have everything ready. I’ve been surprised by government entities sticking their noses where they don’t belong multiple times now. We’re good. Just need an out,” she continued. Steve nodded with a bit of a deflating shrug, which broke his intensity, returning to the straight grief remaining there.

“Steve… are you okay?” she asked quietly.

Steve rubbed the bridge of his nose, an obvious stressed habit if Darcy ever saw one. As far as she knew, super soldiers didn’t get headaches.

“Just… a person from _before_ passed on,” was his soft reply.

 _Before_ meant a lot to Darcy. She felt like she herself had a Before and After Thor, and was constantly adding new ones to her mental tally. _Before_ to Steve could only mean the 1940’s, which a blessed few people remained in his life from that time. The person must have been around ninety years old, hanging on despite all odds. She touched his shoulder, squeezing a bit, before mumbling, “I’m sorry for your loss, Steve.”

He startled at the contact, before nodding. Before he could say anything else, they jumped as a _bang_ of a door was heard in the stairwell, Darcy withdrawing her hand as if burned.

“Steve? Man, where are you?” Wilson’s voice carried down the stairs, obviously descending them.

“Here, Sam,” Steve called out, noting Darcy’s expression turn rather skittish. He frowned a bit in confusion as Sam rounded the stairwell.

“What was that… Oh. Hey, Lewis,” Sam’s eyes darted between the two of them, trying to read the mood of the pair. Darcy gave a half shrug, greeting with a quiet, “Hey.”

“I need to go arrange a flight to London, Sam. Do you think you could find a vehicle for Miss Lewis, preferably one more, uh, worn in?” Steve asked, suddenly all business. Sam’s eyebrow raised, and Darcy took that particular terminology might mean Jane and her would get at least an inconspicuous vehicle.

“Yeah, sure, but they want you back up there,” Sam frowned, as if uncertain how much to reveal in her presence, which she shrugged.

“I’m sure their interrogation tactics have nothing on HYDRA, Steve. You’ll do what is right,” Darcy said. Sam gave an approving glance, and stepped around them to start down the stairs, calling out behind himself, “I’ll meet you in the garage, Lewis.”

 _Bless that man for his perception,_ Darcy thought. Steve’s expression turned fierce once again.

“Be safe, Darcy,” Steve murmured.

Darcy wished there was more time with the sheer magnetism she felt towards his presence threatening to overwhelm her, but could read the rolling change of emotions of Steve’s mood. She stepped close to wrap her arms around his waist in a chaste hug, the need to comfort outweighing all other longings. He wrapped his arms around her small form and buried his nose into her neck, breathing deeply.

“Maybe the next time we meet, we won’t have such inconvenient timing,” Darcy sighed softly, soaking in that moment of utter prosperity. Steve released her, and she took a few steps down the stairs.

“I’ve really got a knack for bad timing,” Steve gave a small smile, despite his sad eyes.

“Me, too. Goodbye, Steve,” Darcy turned to escape before she did something truly foolish, like kiss him or something. Anyone could tell that his emotional balance was a bit off kilter, and that acting upon that particularly desire could be potentially disastrous.

* * *

Later, Darcy looked over from where she was driving at the sleeping Jane in the passenger seat. They were in the recently acquired older sedan as they traveled west on I-90. The coiling fear of being trapped in the compound had slowly relaxed, and she breathed deeply. She thought about how Wilson had gone over the same concerns as Steve when she and Jane piled into the car. And how she asked Wilson to make sure Selvig was taken care of in return.

“I don’t know if he told you, or even if it’s my place to say… but Steve mentioned getting bad news,” Darcy ended on. “Other the Accords, that is.”

“Must’ve been Peggy, she’s been ill for a real long time,” Wilson replied. Darcy nodded, finding it a smidgen surreal that she had anything in common with the Falcon. Mutual interest in the emotional state of Steve Rogers didn’t seem quite normal somehow. But surreal seemed to have overtaken Darcy’s life quite some time ago, so she should have almost expected it at this point.

Darcy then focused on putting all of her memories of Steve in a particular place in her mind, before pushing it away. She couldn’t help him, and Darcy wasn’t one to borrow trouble when she already had a full plate. He’d be fine and she’d be fine.

They’d be fine apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done and all. There's some glaring issues that had I noticed in the beginning, I probably wouldn't have posted it at all, but I'll see how I feel about it in a couple weeks if I think there's something worth telling more from this verse. Thanks for reading, it's been a fun week or two dipping my toe back into writing. <3


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